E3 2011: (We Hope) Prey 2 Is Awesome

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Human Head's game has potential, but will the title tap it?

By Greg Miller

When Bethesda showed a smattering of its upcoming games, Prey 2 got a lot of buzz. A first-person shooter that's ditching just about everything folks remember from the original, Prey 2 tosses you on an alien planet and casts you as U.S. Marshall Killian Samuels. You're a bounty hunter, the world's open, and IGN's Charles Onyett described Prey 2 as "a game worth paying attention to."

We agree. IGN Editor Colin Moriarty and myself saw the same Prey 2 demo at E3 events, and felt we had to touch on the game's verticality, sci-fi feel and our thoughts on whether or not Prey 2 was worth your time.

Greg Miller: Colin, we've both seen Prey 2 -- what was your first impression?

Colin Moriarty: Well when I initially saw the game back in Utah a couple of months back, I was blown away. I never played the original Prey (and honestly have no intention to), but the mixture of linear FPS action and an open-world western RPG feel in its sequel certainly piqued my interest.

What do you think of what you've seen?

Greg Miller: Yeah, I never heard anything good about the original Prey, so I was a bit taken aback by how cool Prey 2 looked. The beginning of waking up in a broken down spaceship seemed run of the mill to me, but when the demo jumped ahead and I got to see Samuels as a kick ass bounty hunter who could scale the city, and I was immediately interested.

Colin Moriarty: I have no problem with a more linear style FPS -- and that's obviously what we were shown in the beginning of the demo, as you said -- but I agree, its segue into the open world portion of the game really blew me away.

I'm a sucker for Western RPG-style games (think Fallout or Borderlands), and this seems like it will fit that mold, at least partially.

Greg Miller: It's funny that you say Fallout or Borderlands, because to me, everything I saw screamed Mass Effect -- a first-person Mass Effect that has me moving around like Mirror's Edge. That's exciting. Still, I couldn't get into Fallout: New Vegas because that game felt so stale. I hate just staring at an NPC, watching his or her lip sync be off, and moving on. Prey 2 didn't look like it was really getting away from that -- and yes, I know the Prey 2 people didn't make New Vegas. I'm just using it as an example.

Colin Moriarty: Prey 2 certainly looks like a more dynamic game than New Vegas and Borderlands, but its emphasis on side quests, earning cash and experience seems to invoke those games to me. And obviously, there are choices to be made in Prey 2, which definitely invokes Fallout as well as Mass Effect, which you already mentioned.

But thematically, I think you're right, this game screams Mass Effect. It certainly has the potential to be another sci-fi epic.

Get the bounty.

Greg Miller: Think it'll actually deliver on that epic potential?

Colin Moriarty: It's tough to say. Human Head Studios isn't one of our industry's heavy-hitters to be certain, but we're regularly blown-away by great games from smaller developers. From what I saw, Prey 2 looks like my kind of game. I don't often care to play sequels (and beyond) for series where I never experienced the original title, but Prey 2 is going to become a marked exception to the rule.

But the real question, Greg, is what do you think about the game? It seems loose and fun, it has an almost unheard of amount of mobility and action-oriented mechanics for a first-person shooter, and the fact that it melds linearity with open-world options is a great draw.

Greg Miller: Yeah. I agree with everything you're saying -- it "seems" fun. I have hope it will be, but open worlds with millions of things to do are hard to pull off. Human Head Studios made a great first impression. Now, we just have to hope the studio backs it up.

Colin Moriarty: Agreed. And let's be frank. There's a bit of stiff competition in the realm of open world games, action-RPGs and the like. Yet, this game seems to put a really unique spin on things. The game seems fast and fluid, full of options and customization. It's most certainly a huge blip on my radar moving forward.